Palestinian Workers in Israeli West Bank Settlements - 2009 By: Salwa Alenat, Kav Laoved

1 Palestinian Workers in Israeli West Bank Settlements - 2009 by: Salwa Alenat, Kav LaOved Kav LaOved (Worker's Hotline) is a nonprofit non-governmental organization committed to protecting the rights of disadvantaged workers employed in Israel and by Israelis in the Occupied Territories, including low-income Israeli workers, Palestinians, migrant workers, subcontracted workers and new immigrants. These workers often face severe violations by employers and a lack of enforcement of Israeli labor laws by Israeli authorities. Each category of workers experiences unique challenges; a comparative perspective reveals that the levels of exploitation are different in each sector. Palestinian workers employed in West Bank settlements suffer from hardships stemming not only from problematic employer-employee relationships but also from political and social realities which make their situation even more difficult. According to a 2009 ILO report addressing the conditions of Palestinian workers in the Occupied Territories, the employment rate of workers over 15 years of age in the West Bank was a little over 34% at the end of 2008. About half of the workforce is between the ages of 15-29. Their employment opportunities are very limited. Half of the 15-29 age group in the Occupied Territories is not enrolled in an educational institution and is unemployed. The report calls this situation “A waste of valuable workforce.” The report notes that the average income in Israel is 20% higher than the average income in the Occupied Territories. The decrease in Palestinians’ sources of income, which is reflected in the decline in income and economic activity, is to a large extent a result of the continuation of closures and restrictions on movement imposed by Israel. The difficult economic situation and high unemployment lead Palestinians to work in the settlements. In principle, the workers believe that the settlements were built on Palestinian land, but the harsh economic reality and the lack of alternatives force them to inadvertently facilitate settlement growth. This political paradox impacts the question of the legal and political status of the settlements: Does the application of Israeli labor laws in employment of Palestinians in settlements constitute implicit acceptance of the settlements? Some in Israel believe that a complete boycott of the settlements is the best strategy. Kav LaOved, together with its partners in the Palestinian labor unions, try to help those workers who are already employed in the settlements achieve decent work conditions as guaranteed by Israeli law. The Number of Palestinians Employed in the Settlements According to the Civil Administration (the body which issues work permits for Palestinians for various sectors such as industry, agriculture, construction, and others) there are 20,000 Palestinian permit-holders employed in settlements. Kav LaOved and the Palestinians labor unions estimate that there are 10,000 additional workers employed without work permits. The majority of whom are employed in agricultural settlements in the Jordan Valley during the dates and fruit picking seasons, among them are children under the age of 14. In addition, several hundreds of Palestinians are employed in the Barkan industrial zone in the north of the West Bank. These workers were refused work permits by the Israeli security authorities, but their employers were able to arrange special permit cards which allow the workers to work in the area. Additionally, 20,000 Palestinians work inside Israel, mostly in agriculture and construction. There are also thousands of workers who enter Israel illegally and work without work permits. In the last few years, the number of Palestinians employed inside Israel has diminished due to restrictions on movement, the security and economic situation in Israel and the increase in hiring of foreign workers from overseas. At the same time, the number of Palestinian workers in the settlements has risen. 2 Exploitation of Workers Palestinian workers are severely exploited in the settlements. Kav LaOved leads a project aimed at assisting workers employed in the agricultural settlements in the Jordan Valley and in settlement industrial zones such as: Mishor Edomim near Jericho; Barkan near Salfit; Shahak near Jenin; Nitzanei Hashalom near Tulkarem; Alei Zahav; Emanuel; Karnei Shomron and Alfei Menashe in the Qalqilya area. There are 20 such settlement industrial zones, employing about 5,000 regular workers and thousands of temporary and seasonal workers employed through Palestinian contractors. Most of the Jordan Valley agricultural product is exported to Europe. According to Israeli law, Palestinian workers are entitled to employment terms and rights guaranteed by Israeli labor laws. Based on a 2007 Supreme Court ruling, they should enjoy the same rights enjoyed by Israeli workers. This ruling was a result of a 14 year struggle led by Kav LaOved in the Israeli Labor Court. The length of the struggle and the persistent resistance of the State of Israel to the application of Israeli labor laws in the settlements reflected the State’s preference to maintain low labor costs in the settlements. A cheap and available workforce was an incentive for Israelis and foreigners to invest in the settlements. In the two years that have passed since the extension of Israeli labor laws to the settlements, several changes are apparent – some due to the application of the laws and some to other factors on the ground. 1. Low Wages and No Social Rights Workers’ wages have increased, but have not reached the Israeli minimum wage (currently 20.7 NIS per hour). Generally, Palestinian agricultural workers receive a third of the minimum wage, 50- 60 NIS ($15) for an eight hour work day. This also applies to children employed during the picking season. No dramatic change in workers’ wages took place in the agricultural sector. By contrast, in the industrial zones workers receive about two thirds of the minimum wage, around 80-120 NIS per day. Workers in several factories who demanded a raise were pacified by a few additional shekels. An interesting related phenomenon is the filing of tens of group lawsuits by workers against their employers in the industrial zones. In the past 3 years, Kav LaOved has accompanied 5 cases of factory workers who sued their employers. The lawsuits demanded the application of labor laws in the work place, in particular payment of minimum wage and related social rights such as sick days, vacation days, holidays, etc. Most of these lawsuits are still being discussed in labor courts. The lawsuits, alongside tens of private suits, powerfully reflect the changes in employment relationships between Palestinian workers and their Israeli employers in the settlements. The workers used to regard themselves as second class workers because they were not Israeli. They believed that their Israeli employers were doing them a favor by hiring them. Over time, the workers came to see themselves in a different light, as equal and as deserving of decent employment. This transformation occurred as a result of Kav LaOved and the Palestinian labor unions’ education regarding Israeli labor laws and workers’ rights, and these organizations’ legal assistance to workers in areas such as Jericho, Jenin, Tubas, Salfit, Qalqilya and Tulkarem. Collective lawsuits have a tremendous impact. On the one hand, they articulate a collective protest by workers against violations in the workplace. On the other hand, they are a serious blow to the employers; in two work places – a laundry and a quarry – employers came close to shutting down the operations in the settlements due to lawsuits filed by workers and the high costs involved. As a result of the rise in lawsuits in labor courts, employers withheld documents that might serve as evidence in court, such as paystubs, from their workers. In most factories employers withheld paystubs. In the few places where paystubs were distributed earlier, employers started withholding them following the Supreme Court ruling regarding the application of Israeli labor laws. In other 3 cases, employers falsified information in paystubs regarding the number of hours and days worked by workers and did not note overtime hours. In this way, paystubs falsely reflected a payment of minimum wage to workers, while in fact workers received a much lower wage. One of the prominent cases took place in the Maale Edomim municipality, a settlement in East Jerusalem, which employed about 80 Palestinian workers. The municipality argued that the Jordanian labor law should apply to its Palestinian workers. The workers, who were fired due to a labor dispute, argued that they should be granted the rights guaranteed by Israeli labor laws. Similarly, in a factory located in the Mishor Edomim industrial zone and owned by the Israeli company Even Bar Ltd. employers argued that workers should be compensated according to the Jordanian labor law. In many cases, employers forced their workers to sign documents in Hebrew relinquishing the rights owed to them. Workers who refused to sign the documents were threatened with dismissal. In one factory, a worker who was forced to sign a document in Hebrew wrote in Arabic “mish aref” (I don’t know)! Legally, these documents are not admissible as evidence in labor courts. 2. Employment through Palestinian Contractors In the Jordan Valley settlements, employers utilize Palestinian contractors, a common practice in the last 20 years. Over this period, the contractors have established themselves as integral middlemen between employers and workers. The workers often do not even know the name of their Israeli employer. The contractor’s job is to bring workers to work when needed, to pay them and to make sure they do not demand a raise. In most cases, contractors fire workers, change the workers’ workplace and prevent them from demanding their rights. On their part, workers perceive the contractor as a sort of employment agency which can find work for them. Workers and contractors compete for the limited jobs available in the settlements.

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